The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 Sunday afternoon in another come from behind victory. The Diamondbacks were down 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, and ended up scoring five unanswered runs to win the game. But beyond that, there was a questionable decision made by manager Torey Lovullo that has plagued him for most of his managerial career. That questionable decision involved the bullpen.
After ace Zac Gallen pitched six innings of two run ball, Jalen Beeks pitched a shutout inning. But then things got confusing. Instead of putting AJ Puk, who was previously thought to be the setup man in the eighth, Lovullo decided to put flamethrowing righty Justin Martinez in the game. Martinez was supposed to be the closer this season and his play has certainly backed it up.
Martinez in six appearances (5.2 innings) has given up no runs and has struck out nine batters and walked zero. With his 100+ mph fastball and great splitter, he has blown away the competition since 2024 where he pitched to a 2.48 ERA. With his big fastball, Martinez has the stuff and control to be the best reliever on this team.
So it makes it puzzling why you would put the best reliever on your team that has closer stuff in the eighth inning. While Puk hasn’t had a bad season by all means, he just hasn’t had the track record in save situations over the past two seasons, nor the stuff/control that Martinez has had.
In six appearances (six innings pitched), Puk has allowed two solo home runs, given up five hits and walked two batters while striking out 10. Again this isn’t a bad start by any means but the home runs and walks early in the season are concerning. And why not ride the hot hand in Martinez when he’s pitching as well as he is?
On Sunday, Martinez further proved that he needs to be the closer for Arizona, retiring the side in order in the eighth inning, striking out two batters. As for Puk, he did strike out the side. But he did so not in order and walked a batter. You may be thinking I’m splitting hairs at this point by not agreeing with Lovullo’s approach of a closer by committee. But this isn’t the first time Lovullo has not ridden the hot hand with a closer.
There have been many failures of Arizona closers in Lovullo’s tenure. Between Archie Bradley, Brad Boxberger, Mark Melancon and Paul Sewald, Lovullo has never known when to take the ball out of a struggling closer’s hand, and put in a pitcher who’s doing a lot better than the former. This decision-making has cost Lovullo many games over the years.
In 2023, Sewald struggled a bit down the stretch and instead of riding the hotter hand in Ryan Thompson or Martinez, he continued with Sewald through the playoffs. Sewald eventually had a predictable meltdown in two of the franchise’s most important games in the World Series, giving up six runs in two appearances.
In 2024, Lovullo continued with Sewald in the closer role despite the emergence of Martinez, Puk, Thompson, and Kevin Ginkel, and paid for it by missing the postseason in a tiebreaker situation by losing nine of their last 15 games, many of which ended up being bullpen disasters.
With the expectations sky-high for this Diamondbacks team in 2025, Lovullo needs to figure out how to ride the hot hand, or it could lead to the team missing the playoffs yet again, and the end of his tenure with the franchise.
